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# Chapter 2. I Am Han Minho, a Language Genius
Normally, my footsteps on the way to work would have felt heavy.
My chest would have felt stifled, or I would suddenly become sensitive and irritable, with my emotions fluctuating like
that.
But today, I felt perfectly fine.
Someone stepped on my shoe on the subway, but I simply thought, These things happen. The train was packed with people on
their way to work, so they probably couldn't help stepping on me.
Yesterday and today.
There was only one difference between them.
I had decided to quit my job.
Yet I never expected that decision to change my mindset this much.
It made me realize that this was why people should do what they wanted to do.
I arrived at the company with plenty of time to spare.
The office was already bustling early in the morning.
The chief interpreter, whom we simply called Chief, gestured toward me when he saw me arrive.
"Interpreter Han Minho. How about some morning coffee?"
"I'd love some."
Chief had always been a dependable senior to me.
I had no particularly impressive work experience and had graduated from an ordinary lower-middle-ranking university in
Seoul, yet he had helped me in many ways when I was hired as a contract worker.
Without Chief, it would have been difficult for me to even get into a major corporation.
While we were drinking instant coffee together, Chief looked at me and asked.
"Minho. Did something good happen today? You look brighter than usual."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Every time you come to work, you always look like you're heading to your own funeral. What's going on? Did one of
your stocks go up? Or did you get a blind date?"
"Come on, neither of those."
Instead, I pulled my letter of resignation from inside my jacket and handed it to Chief.
"Maybe that's why I look so cheerful. Haha."
"Hey, Han Minho! You punk. What's this?"
"What else is it? It's a resignation letter. Your eyesight must be getting a little blurry these days. Maybe you should
visit an ophthalmologist..."
"Hey! You bastard. Are you crazy? Why are you suddenly quitting a company you've been working at just fine? Huh?"
Chief cursed at me.
There was no way I didn't know that he was saying all of that because he was worried about me.
So I honestly told him everything.
"Chief. Do you remember what I told you before?"
"What?"
"I told you I had a bucket list."
"Yeah. So what? Wait a minute. Don't tell me you're quitting because you want to travel around the world?"
"Yes. I thought about it all night yesterday, and I think I have to do it."
Chief stared at me in disbelief before shouting.
"Minho, get a grip! You're in your thirties now. A bucket list? Dreams? Fine. That's all great. But what are you going
to do after you come back? Can you support yourself without working for the rest of your life? Is your family that rich?
If so, then fine, quit. But that's not the case, is it? Huh? It's not like the world outside is suffering from some
freezing economic crisis for no reason. Everyone's tightening their belts and saving money."
It was extremely realistic advice.
Traveling around the world sounded great.
But what would I do after I came back?
I would eventually have to work if I wanted to make a living.
Traveling around the world wasn't going to magically make me money.
Unless I somehow turned it into something that did.
"Wait a minute."
Last night, I had managed to recover the ID and password for my channel, which I had completely forgotten about.
I thought I should show the channel to Chief.
"Would you take a look at this?"
"What is it?"
Chief had asked gruffly, but when he checked my channel, his eyes widened.
"W-what? It has more than f-fourteen million views? And thirty thousand subscribers? Wait, this channel is really
yours?"
"Yes. It's my channel."
"Wow. This is a huge success, isn't it? Fourteen million views isn't child's play."
"Even if I upload a new video, I probably won't get this many views again, but I think it's worth giving it a shot."
"So you want to travel around the world, but you also need to make money. And your conclusion is that you'll become a
travel YouTuber while traveling around the world?"
"Yes, exactly."
Chief was lost in thought for a while before finally speaking.
"Ha. It's not like you're blindly jumping into the unknown. If you already have that kind of foundation, I suppose you
could give it a shot. Fine. Your heart has already left the company, so what can I do?"
"Thank you, Chief."
"Still, you can't quit right away. You know there's about a month left before our project is finished, right? Quit after
that. I'll talk to the higher-ups."
"Of course."
"For the next month, constantly study the successful travel YouTubers and figure out how they became successful. You
need to do your market research before jumping in. Don't you think?"
"Of course. I've already been watching travel YouTubers' videos regularly."
"Well, you won't have any trouble communicating while traveling since you're good with foreign languages. Whew, you've
worked hard all this time. Ah, before you leave, let's have a dinner with the other interpreters."
"Thank you, Chief!"
I bowed deeply to Chief.
He looked at me and said.
"Since you're going to do what you want anyway, become the best. Don't even dream of contacting me until you've reached
one million subscribers. No, ten million. Got it?"
"Yes!"
Ten million subscribers.
Honestly, it seemed like an impossible goal.
But I decided to take things slowly.
Just being able to do something I loved was enough for me.
YouTube?
Of course, it would be nice if I became successful quickly, but I didn't mind if I grew slowly.
I wasn't traveling around the world because I wanted to become a YouTuber.
I was going to become a YouTuber while traveling around the world.
---
A month flew by.
The project was completed successfully, and most of us who had been contract workers renewed our contracts, while a few
left the company.
I was one of the interpreters who left.
On my last day, the interpreters I was closest to gathered together.
Chief Kim and Interpreter Park Suhyuk.
But Interpreter Kang Jiseok was there too.
Since he and I had never been particularly close, I wondered why he had come.
In any case, after work, we headed to a samgyeopsal restaurant near the company.
As the pork belly sizzled on the grill, Chief handed me a glass and said.
"Is it okay if we really go all out tonight?"
"I'll only go as far as the first round. Haha."
"At least we should make it to the third round. You're going to leave after just one? Tsk, tsk."
Chief clicked his tongue as he filled my glass with soju.
After the drinks were passed around, we clinked our glasses.
Then Chief shouted loudly.
"To Interpreter Han, who's quitting today!"
"Cheers!"
"Ahh."
I tossed the soju into my mouth.
It tasted bitter.
I picked up a piece of samgyeopsal, dipped it in ssamjang, and swallowed it.
The tender meat was soft and easy to chew.
The drinks continued to circulate without pause.
Everyone's noses gradually turned red.
When we were all fairly drunk, Interpreter Kang Jiseok, who had been quietly drinking soju, looked at me and asked.
"Interpreter Han Minho."
"Yes, Interpreter Kang Jiseok."
"Are you going to another company? Or are you going freelance? With your skills, Interpreter Han Minho, you could
definitely go freelance. That's what you're doing, right?"
"Yes? Well..."
I let my words trail off.
I wasn't planning to move to another company, nor was I planning to become a freelance interpreter.
I was planning to leave this field altogether.
So I didn't have anything to say.
Interpreter Kang Jiseok frowned and said.
"I heard that Interpreter Han Minho was quitting without renewing his contract, so I was really curious. They said even
when I asked Chief, he couldn't tell me. That's why I'm asking you directly. Unless you're going freelance, did the UN
contact you and ask you to come work for them or something?"
"No. I'm planning to travel around the world."
"What?"
Interpreter Kang Jiseok's expression hardened.
He spoke in a displeased tone.
"Don't joke around. You're going freelance, right?"
"I'm serious. Even if you say I'm going traveling around the world."
"Puhahaha! Puhahahaha!"
Interpreter Kang Jiseok burst out laughing.
He clicked his tongue and said.
"Interpreter Han Minho, you're quite the romantic."
I deliberately ignored his comment.
At that moment, Interpreter Park Suhyuk came to my defense.
"You could become a YouTuber while traveling around the world. Our Minho is good at foreign languages, after all.
Right?"
"Interpreter Park Suhyuk! Do you think becoming a YouTuber is easy? Most people can't even get a hundred subscribers
even if they travel all year. Pfft. If becoming a YouTuber were that easy, everyone and their dog would be a YouTuber."
Chief, who had been quietly listening, opened his mouth.
"Interpreter Kang Jiseok doesn't know because..."
"Chief. It's okay."
I stopped him.
Then I looked at Interpreter Kang Jiseok and said.
"I'll take care of myself, so please stop sticking your nose into my business, Mr. Kang Jiseok."
It wasn't like I would ever have to see him again.
There were things I needed to say.
"What, what? Sticking my nose into your business? Are you saying I'm meddling?"
"Yes. If you're uncomfortable, then sit up straight."
Interpreter Kang Jiseok frowned.
But only for a moment.
He kicked the innocent chair beside him and left his seat.
Chief apologized to me.
"I'm sorry, Minho. He kept insisting on coming, and I wondered why he was coming when you two aren't even close. I
didn't know he'd make such a mess."
"It's okay, Chief."
From the beginning, he had been uncomfortable with me.
It was because I hadn't graduated from a graduate school of interpretation and translation and had never studied abroad.
On the other hand, he had graduated from a graduate school of interpretation and translation and had also studied
abroad.
He was an elite.
Yet I had the best performance, and I was always the one the executives asked for during executive meetings.
That was because my foreign-language interpretation and translation skills were the best.
So he had been jealous of me ever since he joined the company.
"The mood suddenly got depressing. How about we go to a second round at a sashimi restaurant?"
"No. I should get going too. I'm planning to leave the country tomorrow."
"What? You're leaving the country tomorrow?"
"Yes."
Over the past month, while preparing to quit, I had made various preparations.
First, I carefully watched the YouTube videos uploaded by the travel YouTubers who were doing well and researched
everything about how they traveled and how they edited their videos.
At the same time, I tried to figure out what kind of travel people liked.
After looking into it, I found that people generally disliked YouTubers who went abroad not to travel but to get
involved with women and attract attention with provocative thumbnails.
They also preferred visiting lesser-known areas rather than famous tourist destinations.
Of course, I intended to visit famous tourist destinations as well.
I wanted to see the tourist attractions everyone else visited.
There was no reason for me to deliberately avoid them.
However, one country was especially popular because of how unfamiliar and challenging it was.
India.
Every YouTuber who went there seemed to go through incredible hardships, while encountering all kinds of truly
unbelievable events at every turn.
"India? Isn't that place way too intense?"
"I've subscribed to a few travel YouTubers and watch them occasionally, but I just can't watch their India episodes. I
think I keep getting too emotionally invested and it makes me uncomfortable. Anyway, that's how I felt."
India wasn't my first destination either.
I would go there someday, but that would probably be several months from now.
The reason I wanted to go to India.
Most travel YouTubers struggled because they couldn't communicate smoothly in India.
On the other hand, I could speak every language in the world fluently, so I expected traveling there to be relatively
easier for me.
Chief looked at me and asked.
"Then which country are you going to start with?"
"I'm going to start with Vietnam."
"Vietnam? Is there a reason you're starting there?"
I nodded.
There was a good reason I had chosen Vietnam as my first destination.
This was only my second trip abroad.
After visiting Germany, I had immediately gotten a job, so I had never traveled to another country.
Therefore, for the first country I visited, I wanted somewhere relatively easy to travel around, and Vietnam seemed like
a good choice among the many possibilities.
Another major advantage was that from Vietnam, I could travel overland all the way to India, the Middle East, Europe,
and Africa without having to take a plane.
Since my budget wasn't exactly overflowing, I intended to travel overland whenever possible rather than taking flights.
In that regard, Vietnam was the perfect choice.
And there was another dream I had been thinking about for a long time.
"A dream? What is it?"
Instead of answering, I made the sound with my mouth.
"Vroom, vroom."
Interpreter Park Suhyuk's eyes widened.
"A motorcycle?!"
"Bingo!"
From Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi.
I planned to ride a motorcycle all the way through Vietnam.
In fact, Vietnam was practically a paradise for motorcycles.
"Traveling by motorcycle... It really is a man's dream."
"Isn't it dangerous?"
"I'll have to drive carefully. Haha."
"You prepared well over the past month. You said you're leaving tomorrow, right? Take care of yourself, and don't forget
to edit and upload the videos quickly as you record them. Got it? I'll leave feedback right away."
"Huh? What? Minho! You have to tell me too! The address! Hurry!"
I gave Interpreter Park Suhyuk my channel address as well.
After checking my channel, he looked at me with an incredulous expression.
"What? Why does it have more than fourteen million views? This is strange."
"Looks like it got picked up by the algorithm."
Interpreter Park Suhyuk stared at my video with a shocked expression.
Before things could get even more chaotic, I hurriedly left.
"Chief, I'll get going now. Let's keep in touch. See you next time, Suhyuk."
---
The next day, I looked around the empty officetel before putting on my backpack.
All I had to do now was leave for the airport.
Before that, I turned on the camera.
It was working normally.
I looked into the camera and spoke energetically.
"Hello. I'm Han Minho, a language genius. I'm going to set off on my journey around the world right now!"